Wall St opens lower as oil jumps on renewed Mideast concerns

Wall Street's main indexes opened lower on Thursday as oil prices surged following a Reuters report that Iran's Supreme ‌Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the country's near-weapons-grade uranium not be sent abroad, dimming hopes for progress in talks between Washington and Tehran.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 25.5 points, or 0.05%, at the open to 49,983.8. The S&P 500 fell 22.2 points, or 0.30%, at the open to 7,410.78​, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 126.7 points, or 0.48%, to 26,143.616 at the opening bell.

(Reporting by Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 6:42 AM.